President’s Note
Richard Pease/Federal Screw Products

Business must be picking up, we are seeing many member companies from our association attend many of the different activities that the MWFA has put on this quarter, and this quarter the MWFA has risen to the challenge to assist our member’s growth.

The Second and Third Part of our Intermediate Training Program proved to be most informative and well attended training sessions. I want to thank all of those on the Education Committee (Ed Lacerra, Mike Henry, David Gawlik, Henry Chernow and Tom Anderson) who through their tireless efforts have made these sessions a success. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Brico Industries who has always generously sponsored the cold heading portion of the intermediate training. Thank you to Dave Slechta, Larry Mills, John Stancel, Tom Tumbarello and staff for a great plant tour.

I also want to thank Henry Chernow of MAE Specialties for his help and guidance through the PPAP portion of the meeting and Harry Czerwinski of Federal Screw Products for opening his Quality Control laboratory for the inspection portion of the meeting. Great Job by all! We will start our Introduction Training; FAST-101 for the fall of this year, and there will be a few new topics to be covered in this session, so please mark your calendars for September 15th.

Our Rockford Dinner – Networking Meeting was also a big hit. Many of our members came together and we received great information from Scanwell Logistics on the rising freight costs from overseas, increased lead times, along with some of the other key freight issues. I cannot stress enough for people from our member companies to attend these meetings to be updated on the latest market changes that are out there. (A personal thank you to Becky Moujouros, for heading up this meeting).

In all my years with this association, this was the most successful Table Top Show to date. The aisles were filled with customers not just for the first hour or so, but for the entire length of the show. This show was busier than some of the “National” shows that I have attended in the past. I’m glad that we could bring an event whereas Suppliers and Distributors could meet and do business in such a convenient environment.

The Bill Lang Sr. Golf outing was for a lack of a better term “a wet one” but everyone that came out, played to remember our friend Bill Lang Sr. of Certified Products. While it was cold and wet out there, there was a great deal of warmth for those who shared stories of Bill Sr. The Golf Committee (Bob O’Brien, Matt Delawder, Rich Cavoto, Bob Baer, Brian Christianson, Steve Urhausen) did a fantastic job putting everything together and many thanks to Matt Delawder of SWD, for coordinating the silent auction and to the other companies who provided items that made the silent auction a success.

Moving forward into the 3rd quarter please spread the word that Scholarship applications must be postmarked by the September 15th. This year we will be giving out a substantial number of scholarships, so let’s get the message out to all students that need them. Every bit helps.

Also, please plan on joining us at our annual Open House, this year to be hosted by Aztech Locknut on October 21st. Watch your mailings and our website for further details on this event.

Again, looking forward into the second half of the year, the business climate has shown modest increases and while we are not into 2008 levels yet, most everyone that I visit with is definitely well above 2009. I still remain optimistic about the balance of 2010, and for most part should prove to be a pretty good year.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our next meetings. Good Luck and Good Selling!